There are some ophthalmic diseases which can be cured, others which cannot. It depends upon the fortune or misfortune of the sufferer. Well, if it comes to that, everything depends on chance. “He chanced to be in the building when it suddenly collapsed. One can only feel remorse!”

Football is a game of antiquity, known to and played by some ancient peoples. The Greeks conceived and played a form of football which they called harpaston, and the Romans played a similar game, spelt almost the same, only one letter differing, harpastum.

The action of the drama is set in the garden of a small house on the hillside of Nagasaki, overlooking the Bay. It will be remembered that Nagasaki was the second city of Japan on which an atomic bomb was dropped by the Americans in 1945.

How deep would a psychoanalyst have to delve in order to discover the fact that Albert was perhaps ashamed that he, son of so grand a man, had for mother a glamorous Hollywood actress, who, alas, could not act.

Is that the true reason why Albert has made himself so thoroughly déclassé?

Dr Adler wished to establish that things are either inferior or superior to one another. This comprises the entire Universe, and there is no argument about it. This basic scientific truth should not be the cause of surprise, embarrassment, or shame.

Ever since Hugo Chávez of Venezuela became the charismatic leader of his turbulent country so unexpectedly and dramatically, the Bush Junta, and sections of Washington have slowly been developing a bad case of the jitters! Connie Rice, in one of her trances, called President Chávez a “very dangerous man”.

I was once attacked in a similar way by two ladies at a party, who were slightly tipsy. “Tell us, oh worthy columnist,” one of them aggressively demanded, “are you, or are you not, in favour of Women’s Lib?”

I knew that the intelligence services in the UK were in a bad way, after Iraq and all that, and their ranks somewhat depleted, but I never though that matters were so desperate that “M” has to put ads in newspapers for potential spooks to apply!

From Paper to Celluloid. The Guardian on Tuesday 19 April 2006 published a piece entitled Film of the book: top 50 adaptations revealed by Mark Brown. This is how it began : “As anyone who has seen any version of Anna Karenina knows, a great book does not necessarily make a great film. And while The Godfather was a great movie, was it a great novel? Probably not.”

Colonel Coleman, head of an infantry division of the American army, had helped to destroy the site of Babylon, and was now ready to apologise to the Iraqi people, if that would in any way assuage their grief! The Americans always think that by saying “Sorry” they can get away with most things. It is a cornerstone of their foreign policy.

I have lived for some time in Italy in the remote past, and have not lost my appetite for the pungent flavour for the pasta of Italian politics, with its choice of minestrone, or spaghetti Bolognaise, all washed down with a Chianti of good vintage!